Manson Family members haunted

Manson murders

Linda Deutsch, Associated Press

Published
4:00 am PDT, Wednesday, August 12, 2009

In a Dec. 17, 1970 file photo, right, Charles Manson is pictured en route to a Los Angeles courtroom. At left, a 74-year-old Manson is shown in a file photo from March 18, 2009 released by California corrections officials taken at Corcoran State Prison. less

In a Dec. 17, 1970 file photo, right, Charles Manson is pictured en route to a Los Angeles courtroom. At left, a 74-year-old Manson is shown in a file photo from March 18, 2009 released by California ... more

Photo: AP

Photo: AP

Image
1of/3

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 3

In a Dec. 17, 1970 file photo, right, Charles Manson is pictured en route to a Los Angeles courtroom. At left, a 74-year-old Manson is shown in a file photo from March 18, 2009 released by California corrections officials taken at Corcoran State Prison. less

In a Dec. 17, 1970 file photo, right, Charles Manson is pictured en route to a Los Angeles courtroom. At left, a 74-year-old Manson is shown in a file photo from March 18, 2009 released by California ... more

Photo: AP

Manson Family members haunted

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

Forty years ago, they were kids. Vulnerable, alienated, running away from a world racked by war and rebellion. They turned to a cult leader for love and wound up tied to a web of unimaginable evil.

They were part of Charles Manson's "Family" and now, on the brink of old age, they are the haunted.

"I never have a day go by that I don't think about it, especially about the victims," says Barbara Hoyt, who was 17 the summer of the Sharon Tate-LaBianca murders. "I've long ago accepted the fact it will never go away."

The ones who aren't in prison are scattered across the country. Some live under assumed names to hide their past from friends and business associates. Some have undergone surgery to remove the "X" that Manson ordered them to carve on their foreheads, showing they were "X-ed" out of society. Some live with endless regret.

Those who escaped taking part in the spasm of terror that snuffed out at least nine lives would seem to be lucky. But their lives have been linked forever to one of the craziest mass murders in history.

"Manson made a lot of victims besides the ones he killed," said Catherine Share, who once lived with the Manson Family under the nickname Gypsy. "He destroyed lives. There are people sitting in prison who wouldn't be there except for him. He took all of our lives."

It was 1969, the summer of the first moon landing. War was raging in Vietnam. Hippies were in the streets of San Francisco, the last bastion of the waning counterculture movement.

Unspeakable carnage

On the morning of Aug. 9, a housekeeper ran screaming from a home in lush Benedict Canyon. She had discovered a scene of unspeakable carnage. Five bodies were scattered around the estate.

The most famous, actress Sharon Tate, 26, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, had been stabbed multiple times. But there were four others that day and two more the next. Wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca, 44, and his wife Rosemary, 38, were found stabbed to death in their home across town.

It would be more than three months before the name Charles Manson was linked to the crimes. And then the story became even weirder.

The discovery of Manson's clan living in a high desert commune opened up the astounding story of an ex-convict who had gathered young people into a cult and ordered them to kill. His reasons still remain a subject of debate. Some say he wanted to foment a race war; others say it was senseless.

Those cult members lucky enough not to have killed for Manson on Aug. 9-10, 1969, have spent decades trying to bury their past and free themselves from his grasp.

Some never succeeded. Sandra Good and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme committed crimes later that they said were for Manson and went to federal prison.

When Good, 65, was paroled, she moved near the maximum-security prison that holds Manson, reportedly so she could "feel his vibes." Fromme, 60, is due for parole this summer after serving 33 years for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.

Ragtag band

In 1969, there were perhaps 30 of them, a ragtag band of runaways and dropouts living on a movie ranch in the San Fernando Valley, all loyal to a shaggy-haired con man who preached a gospel of violence. Five of the members and Manson are in prison for the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders. Three are in prison for other crimes and two have been released.

Those who are free are still trying to sort out how they fell under his spell and how they came so close to one of the worst crimes of the 20th century. This is the anniversary of their nightmare.

They were very young when they found Manson - or he found them. Some were just 14. Others were in their late teens and early 20s.

Share muses how she might have been a lawyer or journalist had she never met Manson.

"We were just a bunch of kids looking for love and attention and a different way to live," recalls Share, 66. "He was everything to us. He was a con, a manipulator of the worst kind."

Hoyt was a 17-year-old who had left home after an argument with her father. She was sitting under a tree eating her lunch when a group of Manson followers came along in a van and asked her to go with them. They went to a house in the San Fernando Valley.

"I met Charlie the next morning," she said. "He took me for a motorcycle ride and we went for doughnuts. He was very nice. I thought he was pretty neat."

The two women, who are not in touch with each other, have struggled back to normalcy. "People freak out when they find out about my past," Hoyt said.

She keeps track of the Manson Family members in prison and writes letters urging that they never be released.

Manson Family grows old in prison

Seven former members of Charles Manson's communal "family" remain in prison 40 years after the Tate-LaBianca killings made the cult notorious; two others have been released. They are:

-- Charles Manson, 74, serving a life term at Corcoran State Prison. The cult leader and some of his followers originally were sentenced to death, which was commuted to life when the death penalty was briefly outlawed in the 1970s. In addition to the Tate-LaBianca killings, he was convicted of the murders of musician Gary Hinman and ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea.

-- Susan Atkins, 61, held at a medical unit at the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla (Central California). Death sentence commuted to life. Gravely ill with a brain tumor, she was denied compassionate release. Parole hearing scheduled Sept. 2.

-- Charles "Tex" Watson, 63, serving a life sentence at Mule Creek State Prison at Ione (Amador County). He became a born-again Christian and ordained minister in prison. Married and has three children.

-- Bruce Davis, 66, serving a life term at California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo. He became a born-again Christian and married while in prison. He has a teenage daughter. He works in the Protestant prison chapel as an assistant pastor.

-- Robert Beausoleil, 61, serving life sentence at an Oregon prison. He married while in prison and is the father of four and grandfather of two. He has written and recorded music while in prison.

-- Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, 60, held at Carswell Federal Prison in Texas, sentenced to life in 1976 for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford. Due to be paroled Aug. 16.

Two ex-members have been released from prison:

-- Sandra Good, 65, sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 1976 for sending threatening letters to 170 corporate executives. Paroled in 1985, she lived in Vermont, then moved to Hanford (Kings County) to be near Manson's prison and started a Manson Web site. Current whereabouts unknown.

-- Steve Grogan, 63, sentenced to life in prison in the Shea killing. He drew a map that led authorities to the body and was paroled in 1985. Current whereabouts unknown.